1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein pertains to a fast-acting thermostat assembly of a specific snap-action type as combined with a single integral bracket stacked assembly forming a sole intermediate piece to line up a first group of stacked thermostat parts and a second group of the thermostat control rod and associated parts as used on an iron soleplate for intimate contact therewith such that the single bracket in combination with the snap-action structure performs multiple functions of a shaft bearing, cam surface and stops and, with its shaft as an adjustment on a tension portion of the thermostat blade assembly to vary the snap-action, and form a single fixed locator between the various groups of separate structural parts that comprise the entire stack snap-action thermostat and iron assembly. In addition, the thermostat assembly may be used alone as well as preferably in intimate contact on an iron soleplate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Appliances, such as irons, provide a mounting for a temperature controlling thermostat where the mount comprises a boss on the soleplate creating a heat sink or collecting conductor to sense temperature for the thermostat which is mounted in close contact on the boss to react to desired manually set temperature changes. Generally, in an iron, the thermostat is mounted centrally or in the forward portion of the soleplate to detect the hottest part and react accordingly.
Recent developments have produced lightweight plastic irons at a low price and such irons have required rearrangement of the otherwise conventional thermostats because of the combining of many functions in the molded plastic that eliminates many parts in the previous metallic iron. A forward thermostat location is advantageous in irons which provide extra steam capacity whereby an extra slug of water is pumped into a steam boiler, usually a separate chamber, to generate an extra surge of steam which is fed into the distribution system to exit soleplate ports as extra capacity steam. Numerous types of surge irons exist and a typical one is U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,793 of common assignment with main steam exiting most of the soleplate portion and surge steam exiting through a separate distribution system with a small number of ports not connected with the main steam system. Also, snap-acting thermostats for irons are known and generally used in foreign irons to make or break the circuits very quickly and prevent Radio Frequency Interference and meet other requirements. Such a thermostat is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,998. Also, the general stacked thermostat is known and used in many appliances such as irons, cooking appliances, and others where temperature is automatically set usually by a bi-metal thermostat to maintain a selected temperature. It is desired that it be simple, inexpensive, and reliable, and use the fewest number of parts which are easily assembled. It must be accurate and have good calibration characteristics while being compact and have a positive "off" position with the electrical contacts well separated rapidly. It is known to use cams on thermostats to position an intermediate stiff blade carrying one of the electrical contacts with the cam allowing an infinite number of temperature settings for the iron. The cam is usually on the rotatable shaft with its follower on a movable blade and this arrangement requires extra parts and more complex construction. An improvement providing a more proficient arrangement in a thermostat assembly as used in an iron requiring fewer parts to reduce the assembly time, cost, and complexity is shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 051,831 filed June 25, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,655, granted Mar. 31, 1981 of common assignment. It is desired to provide this more efficient arrangement in combination with an improved snap-acting thermostat to improve the overall operation of the iron and thermostat.